A BILL seeking to allow qualified indigents to take the Bar and other licensure examinations for free has been filed at the House of Representatives to remove another obstacle for poor but deserving students.
Rep. Paolo Duterte of Davao City and Rep. Eric Yap of Benguet have filed House Bill No. 4927 to provide the benefit to graduates from poor families “in order to level the playing field amongst all future professional examination takers.”
“Since the sole purpose of licensure examinations is to determine whether one has enough knowledge and experience to perform his or her chosen profession, being unable to pay the licensure exam fees should not be a barrier for any exam taker,” the bill said.
The lawmakers urged the House leadership to swiftly act on the bill so that it could benefit indigents who will take the licensure examinations administered by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and the Bar Examinations conducted by the Supreme Court (SC).
The PRC currently charges between P450 to P1,050 for takers of the various licensure examinations it administers in the fields of health, business, education, social sciences, engineering, and technology.
For the CSC, the fee for the Career Service Examination for Professional and Sub-Professional Levels is P500 while the non-refundable Bar application fee as of this year is P12,800.
Under HB 4927, “qualified indigents” refer to “persons with no visible means of income or support, or whose income may not be sufficient for the subsistence or basic needs of his family, as may be determined by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).”
